REDUCTION OF WEAPONS
Communication Techniques
Communication and Engagement GUIDANCE
This section provides you with a range of “best practice” communication and engagement techniques to make your “No Weapons” campaign effective and efficient. They are simple to understand and use and could make your communications more successful.
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1. CALLS TO ACTION
Make sure messages have a call to action and a suggestion that helps people to make the decision to leave the weapon behind:
For example – “Leave weapons with someone you trust such as a neighbour”
You may decide to make the message visual.
2. CULTURALLY SENSITIVE
Make sure the slogans and murals are culturally sensitive, locally relevant and are in other locations where the local community can see them. (football/basketball grounds, shops and market places).
For example – large murals have been painted on the perimeter walls of hospitals in Somalia.
Somalia has an oral/ pictural rather than written culture. They display the no guns signs. Discussions/ negotiations had taken place with many partners/stakeholders before they had been painted. They were painted by members of the community, and this was used to increase engagement and acceptance of the intervention.
3. SIGNS NEED TO BE REGULARLY UPDATED
After around a month, posters and signs blend into the background.
They need to updated so people see them again as a new communication.
People stop seeing them.
4. ENFORCEMENT
It should be noted that when you have a sign that denotes an action that is an order for example “No Weapons” if that is not enforced it will largely be ignored especially if people see others carrying weapons.
Without enforcement and self-regulation, signs that give orders do not work.
5. CO-DESIGN
The messages need to be co-designed with the local community for them to be useful in affecting behaviours.
This is especially so in culturally sensitive issues such as gun carrying. If you don’t include them in the development of the campaign materials, at least pretest the campaign materials with them before publishing them.
6. STORYLINES IN LOCAL RADIO/TV
The use of storylines in local radio/TV soaps, giving key messages within drama, can be a powerful way of achieving behaviour change.
Rien que la Vérité is an
HIV/AIDS awareness and
prevention programme
using the approach of
reaching Congolese youth
through television, music
and SMS messaging.
7. USING CELEBRITIES
Using celebrities to highlight key messages in social media and getting videos on paid media for free can be a useful tool. (e.g. Lebanon).
Here we can see a screen shot of a tweet by Elissa, the Lebanese singer who has 15.7 million followers, in promotion of the ICRC campaign on the Missing program. ICRC retweeted, and then wished Elissa a happy birthday a few weeks later, which generated a lot of traffic/visibility.
8. PREACHING ABOUT THE SUBJECT
Getting Imams/priests to preach about the subject at Friday Prayers or church services can be a useful way of spreading the message of reducing weapons in healthcare centres.
This form of messaging has been used in many behaviour change campaigns to promote acceptance of a new behaviour.
9. COMBINING WITH OTHER INTERVENTIONS
A communication campaign that involves only posters and leaflets on its own is unlikely to change people’s behaviour.
But together with other interventions such as better security, community engagement and physical adaptation, it is likely to have more impact.
10. FILTERING DOWN
Remember that when you have agreed a new protocol at a high level with army or police or Armed groups to limit the number of weapons coming into a healthcare setting it is very unlikely that the details of the agreement will have reached down o lower levels of the army or police.
You will need to do an information campaign that involves local police, army and armed groups.
11. EXPLAIN THE REASONS
Make sure that when you communicate you explain the reasons for weapons being excluded and what benefits are likely to be generated by the exclusion.
For example, “We have a ban on weapons to make the hospital safer.”
12. COMMUNICATE THE BENEFITS
For example:
“We have cut the number of guns coming into the healthcare centre by 50% over the last 6 months and this has made the place safer to visit”
”We have cut the number of incidents involving guns by 50% this has meant that we have been able to avoid shutdowns.”
13. USE THE INSIGHT
Remember to use the insight from the primary research to
develop campaign materials.
For example, primary research in Bangladesh showed the police feared an incident that involved an accidental discharge of weapon that could harm them or their colleagues. Building a communication campaign that showed the impact of an accident involving a weapon being accidently discharged in a healthcare setting would be a powerful stimulus for behaviour change.
